Are classification criteria for vasculitis useful in clinical practice? Observations and lessons from Colombia

Table 2 Classification of histological specimens with vasculitis from the San Juan de Dios Hospital, Bogotá, Colombia, 1953 – 1997, according to the scheme of Lie [27]

Vasculitis diagnosis	Number N = 304	Frequencies per 100,000 histological specimens	Percentages
			groups of vasculitis	subgroups of vasculitis
I. Primary vasculitis	142	74	46.7
A. Affecting large, medium and small sized blood vessels	1	0.6		0.7
1. Giant cell (Temporal) arteritis	1	0.6
B. Affecting predominantly medium and small-sized blood vessels	29	17.5		20.4
1. Polyarteritis nodosa	24	14.5
2. Churg-Strauss syndrome	2	1.2
3. Wegener's granulomatosis	3	1.8
C. Affecting predominantly small-sized blood vessels	74	44.7		52.1
1. Microscopic polyangiitis	1	0.6
2. Henoch-Schönlein purpura	9	5.4
3. Cutaneous leukocytoclastic angiitis	64	38.7
D. Miscellaneous conditions	38	23		26.8
1. Buerger's disease	38	23
II. Secondary vasculitides	55	33.2	18.1
1. Infection-related vasculitis	20	12.1
2. Connective tissue disease vasculitis	33	20
3. Hypocomplementemic urticarial vasculitis	1	0.6
4. Vasculitis associated with neoplasia	1	0.6
III. Unclassified vasculitis	107	64.6	35.2
Total	304	183.6	100